The present disclosure is directed to a control apparatus for grain handling equipment. Grain handling inevitably involves the creation of dust and the risk of dust explosions. Grain dust creates an explosive hazard at any location where sufficient quantities of grain are handled. There are various explosion suppression techniques suitable for grain handling equipment. The present apparatus is particularly beneficial in suppressing the tendency to explode in granaries inasmuch as this apparatus avoids the use of electricity in the near vicinity of the granary. Grain dust is particularly a hazard in areas where the grain is processed in comparision with storage of grain. Clouds of dust are created by the handling which makes handling somewhat hazardous.
The present apparatus is a control system and control apparatus for installation in a grain processing facility. The apparatus has as one advantage the utilization of a pneumatic control system which reduces the hazard of explosion because electrical power is not required. Rather, the control system utilizes pneumatic power to operate two pieces of equipment. It incorporates a sensor which responds to the presence or absence of grain. The system is maintained on as long as grain is present. The apparatus, however, senses when the grain is no longer present and switches the grain processing equipment off. This is cooperative with grain processing equipment having a gate in a hopper to control the feed of grain to be processed. The processing equipment, itself, is operated by means of a control rod which can be connected to switch equipment off and on within the processing equipment. The two components in the grain processing equipment are thus implemented by motion which is under control of the control system in cooperation with the sensor. One important feature of this disclosed apparatus is incorporation of a sensor at a suitable location in the grain feed apparatus to respond to the presence of grain feed. In particular, the apparatus utilizes a pneumatically powered sensor to detect the presence or absence of grain. One or more sensors can be mounted and arranged in series or parallel as the requirements dictate to thereby enable the control apparatus to respond to grain flow. The response from the sensor thus dictates operation of the control system.